Tuesday, October 8, 2013

How I Met Your Mother 9.04 Review: Friendship is Important

This will serve as my only warning.
If you haven’t watched last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, entitled ‘The Broken Code’, then now would
be the time to do so. This is not a spoiler free blog. I repeat, THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
You’ve been warned.

So we go into this week’s episode
with fifty-one hours to the wedding. Ted and Barney are dealing with the fact
that Ted still has feelings for Robin, but won’t jeopardize his friendship with
Barney over it. Marshall is still on the road, but funnily enough comes to us
via an Ipad – or something along those lines – and the newly improved
Marsh-pillow. And Lily and Robin are trying to work on the fact that Lily is
Robin’s only female friend.

This whole season revolving around
the wedding weekend is still tedious, but there have been a lot of things our
characters have gone through. My one problem with it is that it seems like too
much to have gone through in just a few short hours. I know the hours
surrounding a wedding can be hectic, and filled with a lot of little fiascos,
but they’re simply not filled with this many fiascos.

I did find this week’s episode
pleasantly comical. It’s no award-winning episode, and I wasn’t busting with
laughs, but it did have its fair share of moments. One such moment is at the
very beginning of the episode, where Barney and Ted both cry over the broken
bottle of $600 scotch. So over-the-top, but in a good, grounded kind of way, a
way this series easily writes in. The other moment was the whole handholding
situation. Before Ted and Barney really worked things out, and it started
raining, the first shot of them holding hands on the beach was hilarious.

Again, this season doesn’t quite
feel like the How I Met Your Mother
I’ve grown to love, but it isn’t all bad. This season is shaping up to feel
like an encore season, where the writers don’t really have much to say, so
they’re working out the few things that need to be done before this show ends
slowly. It does feel like this could’ve been a shortened season, but I’m still
sure I’ll be sad to see this series go when its finale airs.

One question before I sign off.
Where’s the Mother? She’s a series regular, but we haven’t seen her the last
two episodes at all. Why not just make her a recurring character for that?

My rating: 7 out of 10.

Best Lines:

“Please don’t launch into a fake history lesson.” – Ted mutters
referring to Barney, in a way that makes me nostalgic for the way these people
fit into each other’s lives.

“E-lawyered.” – Marshall says to Barney, in reference to Weekend at Bernie’s.

“I’m coming for you, Mosby.” – Zabka threatens Ted, after
Barney takes the Best Man visor off Zabka’s head and puts it back on Ted’s.

Stay tuned for my review of Bones, up next. Then it’s Sleepy
Hollow and The Blacklist.